DSPO 2090A - Social Media : Behind the Scenes

Pre-requisite

If you have a basic usage of Facebook, already heard about LOLcats and the NSA, then you've got what it takes to learn what's behind all that.

Course Description

Beyond eMarketing and collaborative 2.0 gimmicks lies a vast internet cultural and political landscape, that anybody should discover in order to fully grasp what the internet is all about.
If you want to understand how cute kittens, Anonymous, unicorns and the NSA became major driving forces powering today's internet, if you want to figure out how open source redefined capitalism as Marx theorised it, or how Google and Facebook's algorithms are reshaping our society, this course if for you.

Teachers

EPELBOIN, Fabrice (Consultant, ATLN Tunisie)

Course validation

Students will be asked to create some example of contemporary internet culture (memes) and write a report about a particular internet cultural and political topic chosen in class.

Required reading

« Free Culture » & « Code is Law » from Lawrence Lessig are essential readings, if you must choose only one, choose « Free Culture » (and skip the boring US centric part) if you're into culture, and « Code is Law » if you're into legal and politics.

Additional required reading

Movies are extensively used during this class, and you might have a look at Matrix, Terminator, Fight Club, Minority Report, 2001 A Space Odysee and V for Vendeta, because you might never look at those movies the same way after this course. Series like ‘Mr Robot' are nearly mandatory, ‘Silicon Valley' is optional.